John Bowman

John Bowman

John studied Biochemistry at the University of Illinois before moving to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to complete his PhD on the genetics of flower development in Arabidopsis. He completed his PhD in 1991 and continued with postdoctoral research at Monash University. In 1995 he joined the University of California at Davis as an Asst. Professor. After becoming full Professor at UC Davis, he joined Monash University as a Federation Fellow in 2006.

John's research is focused on the evolution and development of land plants. His lab uses the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha as model genetic systems. The genomes of both organisms are available, as are approaches to generate loss- and gain-of-function alleles. Using these systems the lab addresses fundamental questions in plant evolution and development.

The lab is primarily focused on two research areas. First, we are investigating the evolution and molecular basis of the alternation of generations of land plants, whereby both the haploid and diploid phases of the life cycle develop complex multicellular bodies. Second, we are interested in the origin of pattern formation and development of land plant body plans in both generations.